Interactive

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Water Safari: A Photo Scavenger Hunt

Players are challenged to complete a series of missions to photograph coastal mangrove plants and animals in Belize, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING. Through the clues that Plum provides, players learn about coastal ecosystems, the plants and animals living there, and how they are adapted to coastal life.

Here are suggested ways to engage students with this interactive and with activities related to biodiersity and ecosystems.

Using the Interactive: Use the following suggestions to guide students’ use of the interactive.

Before: Ask students what they know about coastal ecosystems. Where are some located? What is it like to live along the coast?

After: Talk about the missions students completed in the interactive. Ask them to name three adaptations to coastal life they learned about during their photo scavenger hunt. How is each adaptation helpful? If students don’t mention it, bring up camouflage, the adaptive coloration that helps animals blend in with their surroundings. How does camouflage help prey? How can it help predators? What animals in your neighborhood have camouflage? Which of the plants or animals that they photographed is their favorite? Why?

Explore Some More:

Water Watcher If possible, take students to a local lake, river, or stream. Have them quietly observe the shallow water at the shore and look for examples of camouflaged animals. Frogs, fish, and many other animals often have camouflage. Tell students that if they see any animals, they should watch what the animals do for a few minutes. Are any of the animals moving? How? Many animals will hold very still to avoid being seen—not just by people, but by other animals, too. How else do the animals they see in this ecosystem survive? After several minutes of looking and listening, have students make drawings or take notes in their field notebooks about what the setting looks like and which animals they see.

Exploring EcosystemsIn this photo scavenger hunt, students learn about mangrove ecosystems: what the climate is like, which plants and animals live there, how they interact, and how they survive in their environment. These questions can be asked of any ecosystem, and PLUM LANDING offers similar photo scavenger hunts in the rainforest, desert, and mountains. You can choose to have your students play each of these games—Jungle Rangers, Explore the Outback, and Rocky Mountain Roundup—and share what they have learned. What similarities and differences are there between the ecosystems? Could any species from one ecosystem survive in another? Why or why not?